Author . 




Title 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDD17fllD3D3 



btoCtRaphical memoir 



OF 



WILLIAM J. DUANE. 



I' I) [ LA U I-: K P II 1 A : 

CLAXTON, RKMSEN & HAFFELFINGKR, 

819 AND S21 MARKKT S'IKBKT. 



ISC.S. 




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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



^VILLIAM J. DUANE 



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P U.I LA DEL PHI A: 

CLAXTON, RBMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, 

819 AND 821 MARKET STREET. 

1868. 






S7' 32.y(j> 



BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



OF 



WILLIAM J. DUANE 



William John Duane was born at Clonmel, in the County 
of Tipperaiy, Ireland, on the ninth day of May, 1780, beinf^ 
the eldest son of William and Catherine Duane.* At that time 
his father, who had married before he was nineteen, wanted a 
week of being twenty years of age. His mother was the seven- 
teenth child of William Corcoran and wife. Her family were 
members of the Established Church ; his father's family belonfjed 
to the Church of Rome. 

The mother of William Duane, who was his only living parent 
at the period of his marriage, was so much displeased at his 
marrying a Protestant that she at once discarded him, although 
he was her only child, and at her death a few years afterwards, 
she left all her property to others. 

William Duane was a native of the northern part of the pro- 
vince of New York, where his father had settled in the vicinity 
of Lake Champlain as a farmer and surveyor. He dyino- in 
1765, the widow, after a short residence in Philadelphia and 
Baltimore, returned to Ireland. Being in comfortable circum- 



* In Ireland the name is pronounced as a word of one syllable, as if spelt 
Dwoiv. According to Keating's History of Ireland, where the coat of arms 
is given, it was originally O'Duaue. 



stances, she did not bring up her son to any occupation, and 
when his imprudent marriage closed her doors against him, he 
was compelled to adopt . some calling for the support of himself 
and wife. He selected that of a Printer and after following it 
for a few years at Clonmel, he removed with his family to Lon- 
don, where he obtained employment. Here his uncle Matthew 
Duane resided. He was an eminent Conveyancer. Lord Eldon 
studied that branch of the law Avith him. He was distinguished 
as an antiquary, and was one of the curators of the British 
Museum. Horace Walpole, Avho wa^Miis neighbor at Twicken- 
ham, speaks in favourable terms of him in his letters. 

The election in May, 1784, for two members of Parliament to 
represent Westminister, was the earliest event which the memory 
of William J. Duane could recall. This election was held at 
Covent Garden, and Charles James Fox and Sir Cecil Wray 
were two of the three candidates. He was taken by his father 
to the place of election and placed upon the pedestal of a column 
to view the scene. A serious riot occurred, during which the 
Irish chairmen, who supported Fox, used the poles of the 
Sedan Chairs in fighting against the sailors, who were in the 
interest of Sir Cecil Wray, and who were armed with short 
swords. I believe that it was at this election that the beautiful 
Duchess of Devonshire secured a vote for Fox by promising to 
kiss a butcher in ret;irn for his support, and by keeping her 
promise. Lord Hood was returned at the head of the poll, and 
Fox defeated Sir Cecil Wray by a few hundred votes. 

In the year 1787, William Duane accepted a proposition to 
proceed to Calcutta and undertake the publication of a news- 
paper in that city. His family returned to Clonmel, to await 
there the result of the enterprise. If it succeeded, they were 
also to go to India. , 

Whilst in Clonmel at this time, William J. Duane attended 
the school of the Rev. Dr. Carey, for fifteen months, which was 



all the schooling he ever received. His mother had been his 
first instructor, even teaching him the rudiments of the Latin 
language. His love of learning and industry afterwards enabled 
him to supply very fully the deficiencies of his early education. 

Among his schoolfellows were three with whom he correspon- 
ded for more than half a century, their friendship ending only 
with life. They were Barry Denny, a clergyman of the Estab- 
lished Church in Dublin, Frederick William Conway, the very 
able editor of the Dublin Evening Post, and John Chaloner, a 
captain in the British army and the author of three volumes of 
poems published about forty years ago, — "Rome," " The Vale of 
Chamouni," and " Clara Chester." 

His father's career in India Avas for some time highly pros- 
perous, and he was ifiaking arrangements for his family's rejoin- 
ing him in that country, when an article in his newspaper un- 
fortunately gave ofi'ence to the Government. It related to some 
cause of complaint which the army in that country supposed that 
they had against the representatives of the East India Company. 
Mr. Duane was seized without notice, and after a short deten- 
tion in Fort William, sent back to England. His property in 
Calcutta, including a valuable library, was confiscated. In 
England, he failed to obtain any redress, the East India Com- 
pany referring him to Parliament, and Parliament sending him 
back to the East India Company. 

On his return to London he was advised by his uncle to study 
law, but declining this, he brought his family again to London, 
and found employment as Parliamentary reporter for the news- 
paper then called the G-eneral Advertiser, now the world-re- 
nowned Times. His son, William John, often attended his 
father to the gallery of the House of Commons, for the purpose 
of carrying to the oflSce of the paper the notes of the debates, 
taken in short-hand. He was now of an age to enjoy the intel- 
lectual treat which the debates afforded. The House abounded 



in great orators, and the subjects of debate were questions of 
the greatest importance, the excitement produced throughout 
Europe by the French Revokition being sensibly felt in Eng- 
land. Amongst those whom he had the happiness to hear were 
Pitt, Fox, Burke, and Sheridan, a galaxy which has never 
since been equalled and probably never will be. 

During this sojourn in London his father was on intimate 
terms with many of the friends of Parliamentary Reform. On 
one occasion he presided at a meeting of one hundred thousand 
advocates of this measure in the Copenhagen Fields. It was 
about this time that William John Duane was in company with 
Dr. Walcot, better known as an author by his nom de plume of 
Peter Pindar. Calling the youth to him and placing his hands 
upon his head, he said to him "My little boy, I Avish you to re- 
member one thing as long as you live: the people of this world 
love to be cheated." 

During his residence in London, much distress existed through- 
out England, owing to the war arising from the French Revolu- 
tion. He once witnessed a large crowd following the coach of 
George III. (who was proceeding to Parliament,) and crying 
"Bread! bread!" and throwing stonfes at the coach, one of which 
broke one of its windows. 

About this time a woman ^convicted of petty treason — the 
murder of her husband — was executed in London by being burnt 
to death. This is said to have been the last time in which that 
kind of punishment was inflicted in England. 

His father having concluded to return with his family to his 
native country, they sailed from London on May 16, 1796, for New 
York, in the ship Chatham, Captain Sammis, and arrived in that 
city on the following fourth of July. Soon afterwards they re- 
paired to Philadelphia, Avhere the father became the editor of a 
newspaper called the True American, published by Mr. Samuel F. 



Bradford, and the son being in his seventeenth year, obtained 
employment as a compositor, in the office of that paper. 

At this time the city and county of Philadelphia contained 
about 70,300 inhabitants, and within the limits of the city there 
were but few buildings west of Tenth street. He lived to see 
the population increased to upwards of seven hundred thousand, 
and six times as much ground covered with houses in the city 
and liberties, now consolidated into one city. As an evidence of 
the comparatively small amount of business transacted here at 
the close of the last century, it may be mentioned that the Post 
Master, Mr. Robert Patton, and one clerk were the sole occupants 
of the Post Office, then kept in Front Street above Chestnut 
Street, where the warehouse of David S. Brown and Company is 
at present. When both had anything else to attend to in any 
other part of the city, they shut up the office and departed, 
persons coming for letters or on account of other business with 
the office being obliged to call again. 

On arriving in Philadelphia, he was dressed in the style 
common to English youths at that period, wearing small-clothes. 
His hair was done up in a queue. His singular appearance one 
day attracted the attention of a youth who was passing along 
Fourth Street in front of the Lutheran Church at the corner of 
Cherry Street. He saluted the new comer with the remark 
that he was "a damned Englishman." After a few words on 
both sides, the art of pugilism was called into play to settle the 
dispute. The fight began on the east side of Fourth Street and 
ended by the tavern at the corner of Apple Tree Alley on the 
, west side of the way, with a victory for the^tswBger.cr^^Asvtf^g^ 
i/ Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia he witnessed a celebra- 

tion of the first French Revolution by the French residents of 
this city. It was held in the square between Eighth and Ninth 
Streets and Pine and Lombard Streets, Avhere a liberty pole was 



erected around which five hundred Frenchmen danced in a ring 
singing the Carmagnole and other popular airs of that period. 

When the yellow fever visited Philadelphia in 1798, his father 
and himself were both attacked with it, and he was given over 
by Dr. Leib, their physician. He heard Dr. Lelb say to his 
father, "You are doing well, but you must make up your mind 
to lose your son," a speech not intended for his ears and which 
might have hastened the close of life with many. In after years, 
he described his feeling as being a determination that he would 
not die if he could prevent it. It was a curious coincidence that 
the lady whom he afterwards married was attacked with the 
yellow fever during the same visitation and likewise given over by 
the physician. Her parents were in England at the time, and 
she was at the country seat of Major David Lenox, near the 
Falls of Schuylkill, when she was attacked. Her death was con- 
sidered so certain that it was settled where she should be tem- 
porarily interred. 

During this fatal season William J. Duane lost his mother, 
though not of the epidemic. 

In September 1798, Benjamin Franklin Bache, the first pub- 
lisher of the Aurora newspaper was carried off by the yellow fever. 
William Duane, who had been for some time connected with the 
newspaper, soon afterwards became the editor of it. His son 
became clei'k in the office of the paper. 

It must have been shortly after this that a singular event oc- 
curred of which he was an eye witness. Governor McKean, while 
passing along Third street below Market street jostled against 
a drayman, and a boxing match ensued in which the Governor 
was worsted. A Quaker watchmaker, whose place of business 
was on the east side of Third street, came across the way, say- 
ing "Governor, is thee hurt? Is thee hurt?" "Go home and 
mind your shop," was the reply. The Governor then, with ad- 
mirable magnanimity, took the drayman home to dine with him. 



During the administration of John Adams, some political dis- 
turbances occurred in Berks County. Several troops of horse 
were sent up from Philadelphia to aid in suppressing them. The 
Aurora newspaper published a letter from that County, stating 
that the troops were living upon the people among whom they 
were sent. After the return of the troops to the city, a mob 
of their officers proceeded to the office of the Aurora, then in 
Franklin Court, dragged the editor out of the building, beat 
him until he was senseless and then left him. His son, coming 
to his assistance, Avas knocked down. Legal proceedings against 
the rioters produced some redress. It afterwards appeared that 
the information which had given offence was perfectly true. 

When the Seat of the General Government was removed to 
Washington City, his father opened a book store in that city, 
and William J. Duane was frequently sent there to assist in the 
management of it. I believe that some of the books there issued 
have his name upon the title page as publisher. As Mr. Jeffer- 
son had ascribed his election to the Presidency to the support 
given him by the Aurora newspaper, it was natural that the 
patronage of the Executive Departments should be given to the 
new Book and Stationery store opened in the Capital. 

On the last day of the year 1805, William John Duane was 
married to Deborah Bache, the sixth child and third daughter 
of Richard and Sarah Bache. Mrs. Bache, his mother-in-law, 
was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin. This union, which 
was a remarkably happy one, was terminated by her death in 
February, 1863. 

Shortly after his marriage he entered into business as a paper 
merchant, in partnership with William Levis, a member of the 
Society of Friends, who owned a paper mill in Delaware County, 
Pennsylvania. Mr. Levis superintended the mill, and Mr. 
Duane attended to the sales of their paper, first on the east side 
of Fourth street below Market street, and afterwards at the 



8 

eastern corner of Market street and Franklin Court, since called 
Franklin Place. 

Whilst engaged in this business, Mr. Duane's name was 
forged to a check and seven hundred dollars withdrawn by means 
of it from the bank in which he kept his account. Having dis- 
covered the offender, he preferred bearing the loss to having 
him brought before the criminal Court; an act of mercy which 
was followed by the reformation of the individual, whose oflfence 
was the last of this kind, as he afterwards became a respectable 
citizen, though never able to replace the amount thus fraudu- 
lently obtained. 

In the autumn of 1809, Mr. Duane Avas elected to the Penn- 
sylvania House of Representatives, upon the ticket supported 
by the Republican party, afterwards called the Democratic party. 
He received, on this occasion only, the lowest vote of any of the 
successful candidates, his majority over the highest candidate on 
the Federal ticket being thirty-five votes. 

At that time nominations for office were made by the Demo- 
cratic part}'' in Philadelphia in a manner somewhat different 
from the method pursued at present. The ticket was formed, 
as now, by ward delegates, and then submitted to a town meet- 
ing of tlie party, held in the County Court House, or, if the 
assemblage was too large for that, in Independence Square. 
This meeting could reject any of the candidates named, and 
substitute other persons in their place, which was sometimes 
done. 

The Legislature at this time met at Lancaster. Mr. Duane 
was then in his thirtieth jesii\ and, although it was his 
first session, he was a prominent member of the House. He 
was appointed the Chairman of the Committee on Roads and 
Inland Navigation, and also the Chairman of the large com- 
mittee raised to consider that part of the Governor's Message 
relating to "the case of Gideon Olmstead." 



9 

This case of Olmstead was the most exciting question before 
the Legislature at this session ; we have not room here to give 
a full account of it ; it must suffice to say that the State authori- 
ties came into collision with those of the Central Government; 
that an attempt by the United States Marshal to serve process 
upon the daughters of David Rittenhouse, late Treasurer of the 
United States, they being the Executrices of his will, was re- 
sisted by a body of Pennsylvania Militia, under command of 
General Michael Bright, which drove away the Marshall's force 
by the use of the bayonet, and that the conduct of Gen. Bright 
was approved of by the Governor of the State, Simon Snyder ; 
that a riot ensued in the vicinity of the residence of these ladies, 
at the N. W. corner of Arch and Seventh streets ; and, finally, 
that the Marshall, having effected an entrance into the house by 
way of Cherry street, arrested Mrs. Sergeant, one of Mr. Rit- 
tenhouse's daughters, whereupon the money claimed by Olmstead 
and others was paid. Mr. Duane, as Chairman of the Commit- 
tee, had to present their report, sustaining the conduct of the 
State authorities ; but he differed from them, and afterwards from 
the majority of the House, upon the subject. 

In this year Mr. Duane wrote and published a work entitled, 
"The Law of Na.tions, Investigated in a popular manner, Ad- 
dressed to the Farmers of the United States." In this he dis- 
cussed the origin of the law of nations, the rights of belligerents 
and neutrals, and the conduct of England and France towards 
neutrals and towards the United States, before, during, and after 
the Revolution. The constant assaults of England upon the 
commerce of the United States rendered these questions par- 
ticularly interesting to our people. 

About this time commenced the schism in the Republican 
party which divided it into two sections, called the Old School 
Democrats and the New School Democrats. The latter were 
the especial supporters of Governor Snyder, and personal con- 



10 

siderations entered much into tlie causes of the division. The 
principal question of principle which separated them was the 
manner in which the Governor should be nominated, the New 
^S'cAoo^ advocating legislative caucuses, and the Old /S'c'/iooZ support- 
ing conventions of delegates chosen bv the people. The Old 
School was the less numerous of the two. The bitterness of the 
two sections towards each other was very great. Sometimes 
the Old School and the remains of the Federal party united in 
support of the same candidates. This separation did not com- 
pletely end until the year 1826, when both wings united in a 
convention which nominated Governor Shulze for re-election. 
Ever since, the caucus system of nominations has been abandoned, 
and conventions having taken the places of caucuses, the weaker 
section, the Old School, must be considered as having secured the 
triumph of its system. 

At the election in 1810, the two divisions of the Republican 
party supported distinct tickets for some of the offices. For 
the Assembly they united on a single ticket, upon which Mr. 
Duane's name was placed, but it was defeated by a majority of 
several hundred. The same fate attended their nomination in 
1811, at which time Mr. Duane was not a candidate. 

In this latter year he published in a collected form a series of 
letters upon the Internal Improvement of the Commonwealth 
by roads and canals. These letters originally appeared in the 
Aurora newspaper. 

The war of 1812, occasioned the formation of a number of 
new volunteer companies in Philadelphia. Mr. Duane, who, in 
earlier life, had been adjutant of a military body called the 
Legion, Avas one of the original members of the State Fencibles, 
a company which lasted until the close of the recent rebellion, 
when the folly of the Pennsylvania Legislature put an end to 
all the volunteer companies in the state. Subsequently to his 
belonging to the State Fencibles, Mr. Duane was captain of 



11 

another company, formed in 1814, and called, I believe, the 
Republican Greens. 

In 1812 he was chosen for the second time to the Pennsylvania 
House of Representatives, receiving the highest vote of any of 
the candidates upon the Democratic ticket. In the city of 
Philadelphia that ticket was elected by a majority averaging 
more than two hundred votes, and the vote given to the success- 
ful ticket nearly doubled that given in the preceding year, 
rising from 1556 to 3029 votes. At the session of 1812-13, 
Mr. Duane was again the chairman of the Committee on Roads 
and Canals. 

The most important bill before the Legislature at this session 
was an act incorporating forty-one new banks. Governor Snyder 
vetoed the bill in a short but most judicious message, but it was 
again passed, receiving a two-third vote, and became a law. 
A very few years sufficed to show the wisdom of the Governor's 
objections. Wide spread ruin followed the creation of these 
factories of irredeemable paper money. The details are to be 
found in Gouge's History of Paper Money and Banking. Mr. 
Duane, in common with most of the members from the city and 
county of Philadelphia, voted against the bill from first to 
last. 

The decease of Mr. Duane's father-in-law, in the year 1811, 
enabled him two years afterwards to relinquish the business of 
paper merchant and commence the study of the law. This he 
did in the office of Joseph Hopkinson, Esq., afterwards Judge 
of the United States District Court. In the year 1813, whilst 
he was a student, he was for the third time elected to the 
Legislature, again receiving the highest vote. 

On the 13th of June 1815, Mr. Duane was admitted to the 
bar. The following extract from a paper left by him for his 
family refers to this period of his life : — 

"I went to the bar later in life than members of it in general. 
I adopted the profession at the pressing advice of several friends. 



12 

I was and still am opposed to all controversy or disputation; 
and I anticipated that I could not accustom myself to accept 
business, regardless of its true nature. I had scarcely been ad- 
mitted when very many poor persons, as I Avas very generally 
known, desired my counsel, and I then commenced a jjractice 
which I never departed from, of trying to reconcile conflicting 
individuals and to terminate their disputes. I confess there 
may have been some presumption in this, but success in most 
instances reconciled me to the innovation. I have another 
apology, if it may be called one : I had been brought up in a 
political camp; and, although I saw there much to disgust me, 
there was more that was attractive; and besides, my affection 
for my father led me to render him all the aid I could give. 
In 1809 I was sent to Lancaster as one of the five representa- 
tives of Philadelphia in the general Assembly of Pennsylvania, 
and the position and duties there delighted me. * * * I j-ead 
and wrote much for my father's newspaper, on almost all the 
topics of the day. When, therefore, I called on Mr. Joseph 
Hopkinson, under whose care I had "read law," as it is called, 
to thank him after I had been examined and admitted, he said, 
"Mr. Duane, I have a sincere regard for you, and congratulate 
you on your admission; and I have but one more duty to per- 
form. The law is a jealous mistress; you cannot but secure 
her favour if you deserve it and seek it; but rivals she will 
not tolerate. You must be successful if you retire from the 
political field and devote yourself wholly to a profession that is 
honourable and sufiiciently attractive for any man." I actually 
tried to follow this advice, but the twig had been so long bent 
otherwise that I very often offended the jealous mistress. I 
deviated from the usual path; I was not "a hard student" and 
. yet I had a vast deal of business in my ofiice, if not in court : to 
court I seldom went. All this I mention to account for not 
having made in any of the years from 1815 to 182(J, $5,000 



18 

There was, I must say, one consideration — I never tried to pre- 
vail in an unjust cause ; I was generally, almost always, success- 
ful, when the cause was just and the client intelligent, in fact 
I failed but once." 

If Mr. Duane's system of practice was considered unpro- 
fessional by a few of the members of the bar, and those not of 
the first rank, it secured him a wide spread reputation for in- 
tegrity and the blessing promised to "the peace makers." 

Shortly after his admission to the bar. Mr. Duane became 
the Solicitor for the Guardians of the Poor, the Female Hospitable 
Society, and that ancient and most respectable body, the Carpen- 
ters' Company of Philadelphia. At a later day he was for many 
years one of the Counsellors of the Hibernian Society. 

A few years before his death. Mr. Duane, speaking of the 
legal profession, remarked that the difficulty is not for a lawyer 
to be an honest man, but for an honest man to be a lawyer. 

In 1816, Mr. Duane was nominated as one of the congressional 
candidates of the Old School wing of the Democratic Party, 
for the district composed of the City and County of Philadelphia 
and the County of Delaware ; but without any prospect of suc- 
cess, as that was the weakest, in point of numbers, of the three 
then existing partie.-^. 

In 1817, he was a candidate tor the Pennsylvania House of 
Representatives, upon the Old School ticket, which was defeated 
as in the preceding year, and for the same reason. 

In the early part of the year 1819, the first Board of School 
Directors for the city was chosen under the new law, by the 
City Councils. Mr. Duane was elected one of the Directors 
and, on the organization of the Board, he was elected their 
Secretary. 

In the autumn of 1819, the Old and iNiew Schools united in 
the support of a single ticket for the Legislature, and most of 
'the other offices. Mr. Duane was placed upon the ticket for the 



14 

Assembly, and was elected by a vote which strongly testified 
how firmly he was placed in the confidence of the people. The 
total vote of the city was about 4880 ; of these Mr. Duane re- 
ceived 3012 votes, he being four hundred and ninety-three votes 
in advance of the next highest candidate upon the Democratic 
ticket. 

Many persons may not be aware how much the nomination of 
a single popular candidate adds to the strength of the ticket upon 
which his name is placed. Vei'V often, not only is his own elec- 
tion secured, but also that of his colleagues. Let us suppose 
that a constituenc}^ of two thousand persons is equally divided 
between two parties, which we may call the Blue and the Red. 
and that three persons are to be chosen by them to the Legisla- 
ture, or to any other public body : that the Blue party nominate 
A., B., and C., and the Red party support X., Y., and Z. Here 
if every one votes and supports the ticket of his party, each of 
the six candidates will receive one thousand votes ; but if A. is 
sufficiently popular to obtain three votes from the opposite party, 
one of which is taken from X., another from Y., and the third 
from Z., the result will be as follows: For A,, 1003 votes; for 
B., 1000 votes; for C, 1000 votes; for X., 999 votes; for Y., 
999 votes; for Z., 999 votes. 

A., B., and C. are elected, owing to A.'s po])ularity, although 
B, and C. receive only one half of the votes polled. 

A still stronger case might be supposed, where a party actually 
in the minority may elect their entire ticket, owing to the selec- 
tion of a single popular candidate. 

At this same election of 1819, Stephen Girard was elected to 
the Select Council of Philadelphia, upon the Democratic ticket. 
His conduct in supporting the credit of the General Government 
during the war with England, 1812 — 1815, had made him 
eminently popular with that party. Too many of the merchants 
of Philadelphia and of other northern cities distinguished them- 



15 

selves during that war, by earnest endeavors to destroy the public 
credit, altliougli the war had been begun to vindicate " Sailors' 
Rights." Their names have now, for the most part, fallen into 
oblivion ; let no one drag them forth to the light of day. 

It is probable that it was at this time, or shortly after, that 
Mr. Duane became Mr. Girard's legal adviser. He continued 
so until Mr. Girard's death in December, 1831. ■ It was a mis- 
take to suppose that this added very materially to Mr. Duane's 
professional income, for although Mr. Girard was a just man, he 
was not a liberal man, and Mr. Duane, throlighout his career, 
committed the mistake of undervaluing his own services. To- 
wards the latter part of Mr. Girard's life, Mr. Duane's time was 
greatly occupied about the purchase of the coal lands in Schuyl- 
kill County, which Mr. Girard afterwards bequeathed to the 
city, and his general business suffered accordingl3^ 

On the assembling of the Legislature in December, 1819, Mr. 
Duane was appointed Chairman of the Committee of the House of 
Representatives, on Banks ; and early in the month he was ap- 
pointed Chairman of a Select Committee to which was referred 
so much of the Message of the Governor (Findlay), "as related 
to the general state of domestic economy, the general stagnation 
of business, and the practicability as well as the expediency of 
constituting a loan office." 

The distress throughout the Commonwealth was at this timt; 
very great. The swarm of new banks, so rashly incorporated a 
few years before, had mainly gone into operation under the direc- 
tion of farmers and country store-keepers, who knew no more 
about the management of such institutions than they did of the 
Chinese or Hebrew language. Their leading ideas were that it 
is the first duty of a bank director to borrow from the bank as 
much money as possible for himself, and his second duty to bor- 
row as much as possible for his friends. These ideas are by no 
means obsolete at the present day. The suspension of specie 



16 

payments during the war of 1812 with Great Britain, afforded 
an opportunity for expanding the currency, of which they lost 
no time in availing themselves. Money (so called) Avas very 
plenty, and the usual results followed. All kinds of rash enter- 
prises were undertaken, and the people mistook the fever of 
speculation for the glow of health. Farmers mortgaged their 
farms to raise money for improvements far beyond their means, 
and everything promised to go on delightfully forever provided — 
that pay-day never cam.>. But pay-day did come and found the 
great mass of debfors quite unprepared for its advent. The 
consequences were ruinous sacrifices of property, and a great 
fall of prices; whereupon petitions poured into the Legislature, 
demanding from the assembled wisdom of the Commonwealth a 
remedy for the results of the people's own folly. Those petitions 
displayed a scene of extensive misery. The people of Pike 
County declared that the banks had become " instead of blessings 
to the people, like the scorpions among tlie Cliiidreu of Israel, 
a curse to the people, and perfect beasts of prey. The property 
of the great proportion of our industrious people is brought to 
sale at one fourth of its value, and struck off to speculators, 
leaving honest creditors unpaid and families reduced to 
beggary." 

On the 28th of January 1820, Mr. Duane, as Chairman of the 
Committee on the public distress, presented their i-eport to the 
House of Representatives. It enumerated some of the moi-e 
prominent points in the petitions from the people, and thus ad- 
verted to the creation of that swarm of banks a few years previ- 
ously which had occasioned this melancholy state of affairs. 

" Ln defiance of all experience and in contempt of warnings 
almost prophetic, which were given to them at the time, the 
people of Pennsylvania, during an expensive war, and in the 
midst of great embarrasments established forty-one new Banks, 
with a capital of seven teen and a half millions of dollars, and au- 



17 

thority to issue Bank notes to double that amount ! In conse- 
quence of this most destructive measure, the inclination of a 
large part of the people, created by past prosperity, to live by 
speculation and not by labour, was greatly increased, a spirit 
in all respects akin to gambling prevailed, a fictitious value was 
given to all descriptions of property, specie was driven from 
circulation, as if by common consent, and all efforts to restore 
society to its natural condition were treated Avith undisguised 
contempt. ****** A new measure, however, remained to 
be adopted, that was really to close the last scene in the drama 
of error : the currency had already nearly vanished, but was 
temporarily restored on the seaboard : the enormity of ficti- 
tious credit began to be felt, the abusive extent of paper issues 
was about to effect its own remedy in the state, when congress 
created a cor2:)oration with authority to circulate upwards of one 
hundred millions of a new paper medium — a corporation spread- 
ing its branches over the union with the baneful influence of the 
fatal upas." 

The Committee reported against the establishment of a loan 
office, and recommended the commencement of works of internal 
improvement by the State. 

It was during these times that a three-story brick store and 
the lot of ground belonging to it, situate on Market street, near 
Seventh street, Philadelphia, were sold at Sheriff's sale for five 
dollars. The lot was subject to a ground rent, not considered 
excessive at the time of its creation. 

The whole Union was at that time agitated by the question of 
the admission of Missouri as a slave State into the Union. A 
few days after the meeting of the Legislature, Mr. Duane and 
Mr. Thackara introduced a series of strong resolutions, written 
by Mr. Duane, against the admission of any new slave-holding 
States into the Union ; concluding with resolutions of instruction 
to the Senators of Pennsylvania, and of request to the Repre- 



18 

sentatives of the State in Congress, to vote against such 
admission. 

On the 16th of December the House of Representatives, by 
an unanimous vote, adopted the resolutions, 74 Democrats and 
20 Federalists voting for them. They were also passed by the 
Senate of Pennsylvania. 

During the Presidential campaign of 1856, these resolutions 
were printed and extensively circulated by the supporters of 
Colonel Fremont, under the title of " The Protest of Pennsyl- 
vania against the extension of Slavery." 

In the autumn of 1820, the Old School Democrats succeeded 
in electing as Governor, Gen. Joseph Hiester, of Berks County, 
who had been supported for that office without success, in 1817. 
Shortly after his entrance upon office, the Attorney General of 
the State appointed Mr. Duane the prosecuting Attorney for the 
Mayor's Court of the City of Philadelphia, an office which he 
held for three years. The only fault found with his administra- 
tion of this office, was his merciful lenience to petty offenders. 
In 1823, Mr. Shultz, the candidate of the New School Democrats, 
was elected Governor, and Mr. Duane was superseded in an 
office never very agreeable to him. After 1823 the division in 
the Democratic party ceased to exist. 

In 1821, Mr. Duane was nominated for Congress for the dis- 
trict comprising the City of Philadelphia, excepting Pine, New- 
Market and Cedar Wards. Upon his declining to be a candidate, 
his father was nominated. Mr. Joseph Hemphill, the Federal 
candidate was elected. Four years afterwards Mr. Hemphill was 
elected from the same district as the Democratic candidate. 

Mr. Duane supported General Jackson for the Presidency. 
Upon the failure of any one of the candidates to receive a majority 
of electoral votes, Mr. Duane wrote a very strong letter to Mr. 
Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, urging him 
not to throw the weight of his influence into the scale of Mr. 



19 

John Quincy Adams. Everything predicted in this letter as 
likely to occur in the event of Mr. Adams's election, came to pass 
in 1828. 

The care of a large family induced Mr. Duane to withdraw 
himself for some years from the political arena and to confine 
himself to his profession ; but in 1828 he was appointed one of 
the Democratic Committee of Correspondence for Philadelphia 
and on behalf of that Committee, he wrote a series of letters 
addressed to a Committee of the supporters of Mr. Adams, upon 
the subject of the Presidential Election to occur in that year. 
In these letters the arguments in favor of General Jackson's 
election were fully set forth and the history of the coalition 
between the supporters of Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay in 1824 
and 1825 was given in detail. These letters were published in 
most of the Democratic papers in the State and, in addition 
thereto, one hundred thousand copies were circulated in 
pamphlet form. The majority of upwards of 50,000 received in 
Pennsylvania by the Democratic Electoral ticket was in a very 
2;reat degree owino; to these letters.* 

The Committee of Mr. Adams's supporters had been so ill-ad- 
vised as to call upon the wealthy to support Mr. Adams upon 
the ground of their having "the largest stake and the deepest 
interest in the welfare of society, and the purity of our institu- 
tions." 

This was noticed in the first letter of the Democratic Com- 
mittee, in the following passage, which forms as good a speci- 
men of these letters as could be selected. 

" Wealth ! What is it ? It is that which gives to its 



* The other members of the Democratic Committee of Correspondence 
were Joseph Worrel, William Duncan, William Boyd, Henry Toland, John 
Wurts, William J. Leiper, Charles S. Coxa and Thomas M. Pettit, of whom 
Judge Coxe is the only survivor. The Adams Committee were John Sergeant, 
Manuel Eyre, Lawrence Lewis, Clement C, Biddle and Joseph P. Norris , 
now all deceased. 



20 

possessor the superfluities of life, whether ho is the subject of a 
despot, or the citizen of a republic — it is often acquired by the 
mere accident of birth, and sometimes accumulated by success- 
ful fraud — it contributes no new energy to the mind, and often 
stifles the finest impulses of the soul, it cannot give health to an 
unsound body, or peace to a troubled conscience — and it usually 
makes man look upon his brethren, as you seem to do, as beings 
of an inferior order. And yet, why shall all this be so ? Is 
wealth permanent in its nature, or hereditary in its qualities? 
Look around you gentlemen, and observe the wrecks in our own 
vicinity ! Look back upon the many persons, who thirty years 
ago, taunted the republicans of this district, as you unkindly 
upbraid their descendants now, with having a small stake and a 
shallow interest in our institutions — where are those haughty 
persons? And where especially are their children? Have 
they now a deeper interest or a larger stake than the humble, 
but honest and independent mechanic ? Or, are they not monu- 
ments of the folly of their fathers, and of the grosser absurdity 
of your imitation ? What surety have you, gentlemen, that you 
or your children will at all times have the deep stake so far as 
fortune can be so called, which you may now possess ? Are not the 
mutability of fortune, and the absence of hereditary privilege 
amongst the happy characteristics of this country — checking the 
arrogance of some men and arousing the energies of others ? 
Should not that mutability have warned you to be tender to 
humble men, seeing that your own ofispring may have to earn 
subsistence by labor, and would deem it harsh on that account 
to be denied an equal interest in the institutions of their country, 
Avith those who may then be the possessors of mere riches. 

" No ! gentlemen — the men, the women, and the children who 
really have a large stake and a deep interest in the welfare of 
society and the purity of our institutions, are those who, Avhen 
society is depressed, truly sufi"er, and who, if our institutions 



21 

should cease to exist, would become the vassals of the worst of 
all governments, an upstart nobility ! It is the humble man who 
should cling to a republic as the only refuge from social and po- 
litical degradation; to the rich and the haughty, a change, far 
from bringing affliction, would open new scenes for the indul- 
gence of appetite, and create those distinctions which, the father 
of your candidate said, exist between " the gentleman and the 
simpleman." 

"Think not that, in thus expressing our sentiments, we pro- 
pose to make converts of those whose prejudices have been nur- 
tured from infancy ; much less do we expect to bring back into 
the republican fold, some of those among you, who, as they have 
acquired a ' deep stake ' in houses or stock, seem to be ashamed 
to remain in the ranks of their old companions in political and 
personal adversity. No ! the hereditary arrogance of the one, 
and the new-born pride of the other, resist alike all efforts of 
argument or persuasion. 

"Nor must you suppose, because we may admit that the mass 
of wealth in this city is on your side, we are insensible of its in- 
significance, when contrasted with the estates of the great bulk 
of the people of Pennsylvania, who are against you. 

" It is to the unsoundness of the doctrine itself, that we enter 
our protest." 

At the election in October, 1828, the supporters of General 
Jackson elected their entire ticket in the city of Philadelphia. 
The Mayor was, at that time, chosen by the City Councils, in 
joint meeting. So sensible were the newly elected members of 
the services which Mr. Duane had rendered to the cause that the 
Mayoralty was tendered to him. Upon his declining the office, 
Mr. Dallas, afterwards Vice President of the United States, was 
elected. Immediately after his inauguration he tendered the 
appointment of City Solicitor to Mr. Duane. This was the 
more gratifying as these gentlemen had belonged to different 



22 

wings of the Democratic party, when that division existed. The 
appointment was declined by Mr. Duane. 

At the election in October, 1829, Mr. Duane was chosen a 
member of the Select Council of Philadelphia for the term of 
three years, being for that office on the Democratic ticket, the 
only successful candidate who was not also on a third ticket 
called the Workingmen's Ticket. 

In the year 1831, the President of the United States nomi- 
nated Mr. Duane as one of the three Commissioners under the 
Treaty with Denmark. He was unanimously confirmed by the 
Senate. His colleagues were Mr. Jesse Hoyt of New York, 
and Mr. George Winchester, of Baltimore. The business of the 
Commission lasted two years and was satisfactorily finished. 

In December, 1831, Mr. Girard died. Mr. Duane and a few 
other friends were present. Although Mr. Girard was advanced 
in years, it is probable that the strength of his constitution 
would have prolonged his life for several years more had it 
not been for an accident which befel him not long before in one 
of the streets of Philadelphia. About half an hour before he 
breathed his last, Mr. Girard got up, walked to the fire-place, 
warmed himself and then returned to bed. The last words 
which he spoke were a question addressed to Mr. Duane respect- 
ing the health of some of his family. 

Mr. Duane was one of the five Executors named in his Will, 
the others being Timothy Paxson and Thomas P. Cope, two re- 
tired merchants, Joseph Roberts, the Cashier of Mr. Girard's 
Bank, and John A. Barclay, the chief clerk at his counting 
house. Of these Mr. Barclay is now the only survivor. 

Several years previous to his death, Mr. Girard had created 
a trust for closing the affairs of his bank after his decease. 
One of the trustees. Major David Lennox, an officer of the revo- 
lution, having died before Mr. Girard, the other trustees elected 
Mr. Duane to fill his place. 



During the first term of President Jackson, he tendered to 
Mr. Duane the appointment of District Attorney of the United 
States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which Mr. Duane 
declined. The President likewise appointed Mr. Duane, with 
the consent of the Senate, one of the Government Directors of 
the Bank of the United States, which also was declined. 

In December, 1832, Mr. Duane was invited by the President 
to accept the office of Secretary of the Treasury, about to be- 
come vacant by the Hon. Louis McLane's appointment as Se- 
cretary of State. After much deliberation Mr. Duane concluded 
to accept this position, and on the first day of June, 1833, he 
entered upon the duties of the office. There had previously been 
some conversation between him and the President as to the sub- 
stitution of the State Banks for the Bank of the United States, 
as depositaries of the public money, but nothing which led him 
to suppose that this change was to be effected without the con- 
sent of Congress. 

Mr. Duane had not been twenty-four hours in office before he 
received a visit from a person claiming to be in the confidence of 
the President, although holding no official position, who under- 
took to communicate to him what were the wishes of the Presi- 
dent upon this subject. This proceeding naturally surprised Mr. 
Duane. During the preceding session of Congress, the House 
of Representatives had, by a large majority, adopted a resolu- 
tion that the public money was safe in the keeping of the United 
States Bank, and nothing, of which Mr. Duane had heard, had 
since occurred which changed the situation of affairs. The 
President denied having sent this person to Mr. Duane. Several 
interviews between the President and the Secretary were held, and 
during the President's visit to the Eastern States, he addressed a 
long letter to Mr. Duane upon the subject, in which he declared 
that it was not " his intention to interfere with the independent 
exercise of the discretion, committed to ' the Secretary of the 
Treasury ' by law, over the subject." 



24 

After the President's return to Washington city, the discus- 
sion was renewed, and an arrangement was made for the selec- 
tion of an agent to inquire of the State Banks in the principal 
cities, upon what terms they would become the custodians of the 
public funds. Full instructions were prepared for the guidance 
of the agent, and on the 22d of July, 1833, Mr. Duane addressed 
a communication to the President, in which he stated that if , after 
receiving the information to be obtained by this agent and hear- 
ing the views of the Cabinet, he should decline to change the de- 
positary of the public funds, he would promptly afford the Presi- 
dent an opportunity to select a successor in the Treasury De- 
partment. 

But immediately afterwards the instructions to the agent who 
Avas to visit the State Banks were materially altered, and the in- 
formation required was never obtained. Thus was Mr. Duane 
released from the conditional promise to concur with the Presi- 
dent or resign. 

The visit of the agent to the State Banks proved " abortive 
in all the particulars which had been deemed essential." Few, 
if any, of the banks were willing to accept the plan of bank 
agency which the President had considered the only safe one. 
Several meetings of the Cabinet were held in September to 
discuss the question. On the 18th of that month a paper was 
read by the President to the Cabinet, giving his views upon that 
subject. To this paper Mr. Duane was preparing a reply when 
the announcement was made in the official newspaper at Wash- 
ington, that the deposits of the public money Avould be changed 
from the Bank of the United States to the State Banks, as soon 
as the necessary arrangements could be made for that purpose. 
On the 23d of September, 1833, the President dismissed Mr. 
Duane from office. Mr. Roger B. Taney, then the Attorney 
General of the United States, was appointed Mr. Duane's suc- 
cessor in the Treasury Department. This gentleman had been, 



25 

in early life, an ardent Federalist and an opponent of Mr. Madi- 
son's administration and of the second war with England ; but 
in 1833, the support of the President's measures, right or wrong, 
was considered the test of orthodox Democracy. The Senate 
of the United States refused to confirm the appointment of Mr. 
Taney. 

This measure of the President's commonly, but incorrectly, 
called " the Removal of the Deposits" convulsed the country 
for several years and led in 1834 to tho formation of the Whig 
party by the union of the National Republican Party and that 
portion of the Democratic party whicli disapproved of the con- 
duct of the President upon the deposit question. 

In 1834, Mr. Duane replied to the attacks upon him by a 
pamphlet entitled "Letters addressed to the people of the United 
States in vindication of his conduct," and in 1838 he issued a 
volume entitled "Narrative and Correspondence concerning the 
removal of the deposits and occurrences connected therewith." 
Copies of this were presented by him to the principal libraries of 
the United States. 

The employment of the State Banks as Depositaries of the 
public money gave a great impetus to paper-money banking. 
In some of the States new banks were chartered expressly for 
the purpose of receiving the public money. These new deposi- 
taries, commonly called "the pet banks," waged war against the 
United States Bank, and its successor of the same name, char- 
tered in 1836 by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and the 
supporters of those banks manifested unceasing hostility towards 
"the pet banks." The people at large suffered from this state 
of things, and finally in 1837 came the suspension of specie pay- 
ments by all the parties to the contest and by nearly all the other 
banks in " the country. The Treasury, of course, was unable 
to withdraw its deposits in specie from "the pet banks" and 
could not, legally, receive as money their irredeemable promises 



26 
• 

to pay. In 1841, the then Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Wood- 
bury) estimated the loss to the Treasury by the failure of " the 
pet banks," at $140,000. This was probably a low estimate. 

In 1840, the Independent Treasury system'was established, 
after much opposition, and was found, on trial, to work so well 
that all objection to it had ceased long before the commence- 
ment of the late Rebellion. 

After his return to Philadelphia, Mr. Duane did not resume 
his practice at the bar, with the exception of an occasional 
appearance in the Orphan's Court, for some old clients or their 
ftimilies. He had fortunately secured, before going to Washing- 
ton, what some one calls " the independence of the breeches' 
pocket," and it was well for him that this was the case. 
Whilst the leaders of one party were irritated against him for 
refusing to place his conscience and his will beneath Ihe feet of 
the President, the leaders of the other party were unfricndl}^ to 
him on account of his opposition to the Bank of the United 
States upon constitutional grounds. Many of the members of 
the ncAV Whig party, especially among the young men, were 
anxious that Mr. Duane should be sent to Congress from Phila- 
delphia, but the influence of tlie friends of the Bank was too 
strong to permit the nomination to be made. 

Much of Mr. Duane's time during the rest of his life was em- 
ployed in the discharge of the duties belonging to Trustees and 
Executors. Few persons were oftener called upon to act in 
those capacities, and his strict integrity and attention to the 
duties of those offices rendered his acceptance of them always 
agreeable to the persons interested. Much of the labour of 
closing up Mr. Girard's estate fell upon him. 

In 1842, Mr. Duane removed from the house on Walnut 
street above Fifth street, in which he had spent the greater part 
of his professional life, and in the following year he moved into 
a house which he had built for himself in Walnut street west of 



27 

Sixteenth street, (now No. 1608) ; and, when the diminution of 
his family rendered that residence too large for him, he built 
himself another in Locust street above Sixteenth street (No. 
1604), where he spent the remainder of his life. 

When the Girard College was about to be opened for the re- 
ception of orphans, Mr. Duane was elected by the Councils of 
Philadelphia one of the Directors of that institution. He was a 
member, I believe the chairman, of the Committee on the ad- 
mission of pupils, and laboured much in this Committee. Most 
of the early applications are filled up in his hand-writing with 
the answers of the applicants for the admission of children to 
the benefits of Mr. Girard' s bequest. Mr. Duane served out 
his term and was not reelected. This was the last office of a 
public character held by him. 

An internal complaint of a very painful nature attended his 
latter years, and his life was more than once in danger from it, 
but the strength of his constitution, never impaired by any ex- 
cess in diet, carried him through, and his death was finally the 
result of old age. During the last year of his life he left his 
house but once, which was for the purpose of giving his vote at 
the Presidential Election of 1864. He rode to the place of 
election, although the motion of a carriage was very painful, 
owing to the nature of his disease. 

He died on the 26th of September 1865, aged eighty-five 
years, four months and seventeen days. He survived his wife 
and five of his nine children. His remains were interred in 
North Laurel Hill Cemetery. 

Little remains to be added to what is said above in delineation 
of his character. No one could exceed him in his regard for 
truth and in the strictest integrity. Whilst he detested vice, he 
felt a strong degree of pity for the vicious, whom he looked 
upon as erring mainly from the want of proper moral training. 
His domestic affections were warm, as is usually the case with 



28 

persons of the Irish race. His stores of knowledge were large 
and his memory strong. In his younger days he was a frequent 
and eloquent speaker at public meetings, and I have heard of an 
instance when he was applauded throughout an address to a 
town meeting mainly composed of those who differed from him 
in opinion upon the subject under consideration. At the meeting 
held in Philadelphia in 1830, in honor of "the three days of 
July," a reference to the English Revolution of 1688 was struck 
out, upon his motion, from the resolutions reported by the com- 
mittee. During the Irish famine about twenty years ago, he 
spoke at the relief meeting held at the Chinese Museum. His 
speech in the County Court House to the supporters of Colonel 
Fremont in 1856 was, I believe, the last public address which he 
delivered. He was then seventy-six years of age. 

His knowledge of other languages than English Avas con- 
fined to Latin and French. In early life he was a good horse- 
man; his tour through the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana 
and Illinois in 1818 was mainly performed on horseback. He 
was fond of music and, in his youth, was a very fine singer. 

His English style was remarkably pure and vigorous. This 
he doubtless owed in a great degree to his early and constant 
practice in writing for the newspapers. For his knowledge of 
punctuation, he was probably indebted to his employment in early 
life as a compositor in a printing office. A friend of his in South 
Carolina recognized him as the author of the celebrated "Letters 
to John Segeart and others" by his use of the colon, a point 
very little employed now by any writer. 



